= eel tad No. V—3 


- foundation for farmers’ movements.’’ This statement is commend- 
‘able. We need such an organization. We must consider, therefore, 
the situation, the reasons for its existence, and the plan of opera- 


> tion. 

If we are to have investigations of subjects likely to eventuate 
into enacted law, we must arrive at a philosophy of agriculture and 
rural life, and the investigators must be trained persons in the 
broadest sense. We must combine the historical and _ scientific 
methods, and be capable to express ourselves in legal form. 


The Association should stand for the welfare of the farmer in 
the interest of society. The farmer transmutes the raw elements 
of the earth into materials of food and clothing. If the receipts 
from these materials are too small, he is obliged to live on the 
_ eapital of nature,—to mine his potash and phosphorus and to sell 
it. This has been the case in the long history of civilization. HEm- 
pires have weakened because of depletion of land. Just now the 
farmer begins to receive reward for his own labor and to be able 
to improve the fertility of the farm. Very cheap food rests on land 
robbery. The farmer must be able to maintain a standard of living 
equal to that of other men; anything less than this means an ig- 
norant yeomanry, impoverished soil, and headlong haste on the road 
to ruin. 


Any constitution of trade that allows unnatural and unjust 
profits to accrue to the handler of produce to the hurt of the pro- 
ducer, also reacts eventually on the land. Society cannot afford 
to have the farmer deprived of his just reward. 

To meet the situation, therefore, the Association should conceive 
of agriculture not only on the side of production but also in its 
broad welfare relations, and in terms of present problems. Prob- 
ably we do not need additional agencies to consider production, 
economics, and publicity, in these connections. The membership 
should be large among the tillers of the soil, and also among con- 
sumers and business men actively interested in agricultural ques- 
tions. When once under way, the finances should come from the 
actual participating membership. 


The investigators should have real experience of agriculture. 
All agriculture and country life is founded on farming, on plain 
every-day farming. We are to beware of the office point of view. 
Even though we do not legislate on the occupation, we must know 
' what it is possible to do and what it is not possible to do and how 
the farmer himself reacts to a situation that a law may create. We 
must also know how the consumer reacts, The first undertaking 
is to rediscover for ourselves the common phenomena of nature: 
the second is to save ourselves the trouble of legislating against 
natural and economic facts. 3 


The statement of the Secretary assumes that legislation is cap- 
able of scientific analysis. It assumes that the making of laws is 


117 


Cw 


No. V—4 


to rest on positive knowledge gained by investigation rather than 


on solicitation and influence. Politics, even government, may be 
partisan; legislation, existing for the public good, should be un- 
partisan. It should be deliberate. We should know before we leg- 
islate. There should be a given body of men and women, desig- 
nated in an organization, to which one may go for facts and reasons, 
and for advice founded on facts rather than on sky-blue opinion. 


The Association can be of little service unless it knows what is 
needed in the way of agricultural legislation. It must be ready to 
act on these needs. 

Therefore, we should have an educational agency of guidance, 
which shall encourage the study of problems affecting agriculture 
and rural life that are capable of remedy and improvement by 
means of legislation. It should stimulate an enquiring mind on the 
part of farmers. It should cooperate with all other agencies inter- 
ested in rural welfare and duplicate none, granting to every other 
group or class its right to express itself as it will. It should be 
non-offcial and non-bureaucratic. Of course it should recognize 
and aid the work of governmental agencies that originate legisla- 
tion, remembering that such agencies are often handicapped in 
interpreting results of investigations in terms of public policies. 
It will be broader than the field of economies, and therefore ought 


not to contest with the several organizations now before the public: © 


it will deal with education, social questions, governmental func- 


tions, police control, public health and sanitation, transferrence of | 


the world’s foodstuffs, and the general welfare as it is expressed in 


the legal aspects of the rural situation. To start with, the Associa- | 
tion is conceived in the broadest public spirit, and it is capable of | 


becoming a recognized clearing-house on agricultural legislation. 
| WHAT IT IS NOT 


Having stated the main affirmative basis of the American Asso- 
ciation for Agricultural Legislation, we may put some of the other 
positive facts in negative form. Thereby may we contradict 
some of the misconceptions and allay the fears of certain of our 
friends. 


I wish at once to state that the Association is not a class organ- 
ization. Agricultural legislation is its subject, but the welfare of 
the whole people is its prospect. We wish to encourage, benefit 
and improve farming and to deepen country life; we want to help 
the farmer; but we do not want to prosecute these objects against 
the welfare of the other ranges of the population, or even inde- 
pendently of them. 

If we hold that the rural situation is at the bottom of public 
welfare because it lies against the planet, so must we be ready to 
accept and to encourage movents that originate with farmers. as 
with other parts of the population; but we shall accept them be- 


cause they are needful and good, not because we stand for farmers 


118 


No. V—5 


as a class against or apart. Can we not commend the statement 
of E. C. Drury, the chosen leader of the United Farmers of Ontario 
who have recently overturned the politics of the Province: ‘‘Our 
suecess, therefore, depends, not on political manoeuvering, but on 
the breadth and fairness of our policy, and on our adherence to the 
high ideals of democracy and public service which have made this 
raovement a vital thing in the life of the nation. May we not hope 
that before long this movement, which has had its birth in one 
particular class, may expand and broaden till it shall become, not 
merely a farmers’ party, but in a very real sense a people’s party ?’’ 

I trust that the farmers of the nation will never be combined 
into one body speaking through what are now called ‘‘leaders.’’ It 
is one of the hopeful signs that the farmers are represented by so 
many regional and national organizations, each of its own pattern 
and each standing independently for a set of ideas. By all means 
we must maintain democracy on this continent. It is a funda- 
mental fallacy now widespread that democracy lies in collective 
pressures and unit drives to secure what are called ‘‘results.’’ As 
democracy is for individuals, so is individual and unstandardized 
or at least unconventionalized action at the bottom of it. This 
Association wants to help, not to dominate. 


Second, it follows that this Association is not in politics. Many 
organizations affirm that they are not in politics because they do 
not stand for either the Democratic or the Republican party, but 
they may engage boundlessly in organizational politics which is 
likely to be the worst kind of politics. The agricultural questions 
_are liable to be made the subjects of partisan politics at any time; 

it will not be incumbent on the Association, however, to desert these 
subjects under such circumstances. 


Third, the Association is not a lobby. It has no project to ‘‘ put 
across.’’ It has no mandate. It is a voluntary coming together 
of those who foresee grave dangers in hasty and inconsiderate leg- 
islation touching agriculture and country life, and who would like 
to do their part to make the problems and the situations clear. It 
will be ready to extend its influence actively to the passage of bills 
here and there that seem to be valid and desirable, but this it can 
undertake only on occasion. 


Fourth, it is not the primary purpose of the Association, as I 
conceive it, to seek remedies by means of special legislation. It will 
study such questions as are related to legislation or likely to find 
expression in enacted law. It will study the effects of laws now in 
operation ; it will seek to enforce laws that are somnolent; it hopes 
to be ready with advice as situations arise. It will draft bills 
when it is clear they are needed and when the problem is under- 
stood. Perhaps in some fields we need fewer and simpler laws 
rather than more numerous laws. Repeal of laws is sometimes as 
needful as enactment of laws. We are not looking for early solu- 
tions but for understanding. We are to urge legislation that will 
stand the test. We remember that laws never enforce themselves. 


119 


No. V—6 
It is at this point that I have the pleasure of differing with some 


i - Pe Capea d «1 Tre 
> a Jibs 


of my friends and correspondents. They seem to think that the — 


Association exists for the purpose of coming to the aid of many 


special and local bills before legislatures and desired by organiza- — 


tions and institutions. The Association may indeed be helpful in 
many such cases, but it cannot assume a partisan attitude. 


THE PROGRAM 

The Association, then, is to be a research or at least an alayzing 
body, scientific in its approach to the problems and sufficiently 
detached to allow of impartial view. It is to develop expert advice. 
It should exercise its influence through careful and proper pub- 
‘licity rather than by propaganda, and be of service to all the or- 
ganizations that are working for the public good by means of 
agricultural and rural needs, influencing legislation in state and 
nation. It should stimulate the unifying and standardizing of 
laws, and the removal of confusions and contradictions. It should 
be able to substitute knowledge for personal enthusiasms and par- 
tisan compromise. 

It should bring together the experience so far gained by agri- 
cultural legislation. This has never been accomplished. Such ef- 
fort means a reference bureau, with copies of all the laws within 
its field, the published reports, the findings of commissions and 
public officers, experience of administrators, the pertinent discus- 
sions in the press. It should compile statistics. To such a bureau 
or body any person or organization could apply for information 
on any particular piece or range of proposed legislation. 

It must ingather the practical results of legislation on farming 
and on the welfare of the farmer. It must go afield, into the open 
country, for facts and opinions yet uncollected and largely un- 
known. The effects of legislation must be traced to wheat, cattle, 
potatoes, milk, alfalfa, wool, cotton, eggs, sugar-beets, fruits, flowers, 
seeds, woodlots. 

It must also trace the products to their destinations on the tables 
of consumers and in the homes of the people everywhere. Every 
. great agricultural problem is also a city problem. The two parts 
must be brought together, in a large plan of mutual consideration. 
There is no agricultural prosperity independently of the welfare of 
the final consumer. : 

Likewise must it take council with the commercial men when the 


subjects deal with distribution and marketing. These men have 


experience and they have rights. They can make good contribu- 
tions to the public welfare. The middlemen and distributors add 
value to goods, so long as they are honest and fair and not too 
many. We must be careful when we legislate for farmers to 
legislate also for commerce and for the safeguard of society. 

It must undertake original studies and investigations. This 
means a working association of well-trained persons who are com- 
petent in the legal aspects of land occupancy, production, taxation, 


120 


No. V--7 


transportation, marketing, cooperation, credits, cold-storage, prices, 


education, representation, drainage, irrigation, and many other 


subjects. How many of these studies should be covered by the As- 
sociation itself and how many of them should be placed in the 
hands of competent persons outside, is a detail to be worked out. ~ 
The best qualified persons should undertake the studies. 


It must be able to publish the results of these investigations and 
accumulations. There will be timely reports, briefs for the public, 
abstracts to be used by societies all over the country, digests for 
readers, monographs. The first contribution by the Association is 
a study on the private colonization of land by Dr. Ely. This has 
been followed by the papers on tenancy by Spillman, Ely, Galpin 
and Stewart; and later by the suggestive catalogue of rural, social 
and economic problems by Galpin and Cox. Before long it should 
undertake the publication of annual reports and a journal. It 
should keep its members in touch with all projected and pending 
agricultural legislation. 

It must be ready to give advice, by correspondence, by qualified 


speakers before societies of many kinds, by printed matter, by con- 
ference with influential persons at important poimts. It should be 


able to express a positive opinion on measures before legislatures 


and Congress. It should see that rural welfare is properly rep- 
resented in new constitutions. Where shall legislators go if they 
seek advice? | 

It must have a program. Definite subjects are to be under in- 
vestigation, pursued by orderly processes. It must organize and 
direct research by many persons and groups, enlisting codperation. 
The investigations should be continuous, that they may always be 
timely and up to date. This program must be known to the public 
in outline, and to all who desire it in detail. 

Of course the program should have certain immediate projects. 
Undoubtedly the leaders in agriculture will soon be committing 
themselves to concrete pieces of legislation of far-reaching effect. 
These commitments may not wait for long theoretical investigation. 
We must be ready at once for practical results in a very few out- 
standing subjects. Even now: we may make clear analyses of these 
subjects, letting investigation follow on the doubtful points. With 
the many alluring suggestions for legislation, there is danger that 
the Association may dilute its activities by attacking too many 
things at first, and it may consume so much time in investigation 
that the laws will be enacted before the studies are completed. 


It must have affiliations. Connections should be established 
with existing agricultural societies, colleges of agriculture, and de- 
partments of agriculture. State and local chapters or branches 
may be organized. The Texas Association for Agricultural Legis- 
lation is a good beginning. Relations should be established with 
educational institutions through departments of economics, farm 
management, politics, sociologics, history. Courses of study may 


121 


- No. V—8 


be introduced into curricula. It should counsel with the consum- 
ers’ leagues. The ‘‘Study Program,’’ by Alonzo B. Cox, recently 
issued by the Association, sets forth inviting and promising out- 
— lines for institutions and clubs to consider. The Association should 

bring together all the persons and agencies interested in the legis- 
lation phase of rural life, into one working body, associating the 
leaders in thought and the leaders in action. It should keep watch 
on legislation. | 

All this means that the Association must have strong officers, 
devoted energetic committees, a large membership representing 
all parts of the country, ample funds, and a well-equipped head- 
quarters. The Association must have a definite organic standing 
in the public mind, carrying a conservative but constructive in- 
fluence, and representing agriculture. These things are yet in the 
making, for the Association is at its beginnings even though it has 
already made substantial headway; how far they develop and 
reach depends on the support the public gives; but the possibilities 
are all within reason and, in truth, are at this moment needed to 
safeguard and direct the country in times that are formative and 
critical. 

. THE SUBJECTS FOR LEGISLATION 

The Study Program prepared by Cox presents outlines for ten 
great groups of studies. These are: food production and prices; 
land settlement ; education, and improvement of country life; mar- 
keting ; taxation as it relates to agriculture; rural credits; economic 
studies in highway development; public grazing lands in the West; 
collective bargaining in agriculture; farm labor problems in the 
United States. These subjects are represented by committees of 
the Association. This is indication enough that the field is ample. 

Not only is the field ample. In reading my replies from members, 
I have the feeling that it should be fenced in. It is not easy to see 
how some of the subjects can be crystallized into enacted law. In 
many of them, the desired results can be accomplished only by 
means of education and the organization of rural forces, and these 
subjects, in such cases, should be left to other agencies. Many of the 
strictly technical subjects, falling within the realm of natural and 
physical science, may need to be left to specialists, although even 
technical laws have their public-policy aspects. My respondents 
did not exhaust the subjects, and some of the statements are es- 
sentially duplicates in different phraseology ; but I am tempted to 
catalogue the subject-matter suggestions in order that you may be 
impressed with the number, variety and range of the subjects that 
may be brought to the attention of the Association. Perhaps you 
will feel, as I do, that the public mind is likely to be miscellaneous 
in respect to the field of the Association. From this list, however, 
may be chosen subjects that come within the line of legislative ac- 
tion. Here they are: | 

Complete census of the land. 

Classification of land. 


122 


No. V—9 


Laws for classification of property. ; ; 

Public regulation of private land-dealing (leasing and selling). 

Utilization of lands now held by corporations. 

Prevention of concentration of agricultural land in few hands. 

Maintaining the use of farm lands for American citizens. 

Public land colonization systems. 

Soldier land settlements. 

State aid in land settlement. 

Land titles. 

Public range lands. 
’ Control of forest lands. r 

Forest and game reservations in their effect on agriculture. 

National reclamation policy. 

National forest policy. 

Reclamation of swamp and arid lands. 

Conservation laws in their effect on agriculture. 

Regulations to encourage the increase of fur-bearing animals. 

Legislation to relate game laws to farming and to make game a legit- 
imate agricultural product. 

Means of stimulating the culture of food fish. 

Development of agricultural areas adjacent to centers of population. 

Studies of the possibilities of the small farm on the outskirts of cities 
and the influence prices of commodities have on that question. 

Unification of agricultural legislation between the states. 

Relations between state and national legislation for agriculture. 

Place and function of the state and federal departments of agriculture. 

Relations of state departments of agriculture to state and federal 
legislation, 

Best system of state support for agriculture in departments, schools, 
stations, fairs, farm bureaus, conservation, and so on. 

The coordination within the state of public work for agriculture. 

The question of governmental paternalism toward agriculture. 

Bonus legislation, or special legislation to increase production in cer- 
tain lines. 

Regulation of speculation. 

The curbing of agricultural radicalism. 

The tariff in relation to farming. 

Taxation. 

Tax exemption. 

Tenantry laws. 

Standardization laws. 

Inspection services. 

Influence of race on rural civilization. 

Effect of immigration on the stability of agriculture. 

Legislation on decay of rural villages. 

Rural police. 

Prevention of the encroachment of labor and other organizations on 
the agricultural field. 

Control of large industries that affect the farmer. 

Legislation to promote equilibrium between producer and consumer. 

The position of the farm laborer. 

Standards of production-costs. 

Laws allowing farmers to engage more freely in collective bargaining. 

Federal and uniform state laws on cooperative organizations. 

Legal phases of cooperation. 

Cooperative purchasing societies. 

Collective marketing and purchasing. 

Cooperative stores in Europe and America. 

Finance and credit for farmers. 

Cooperative and rural banks. 

Amendment of Federal farm loan system. 


123 


No. V—10 


National mortgage banks. 

Short-time loans. . 

Economic basis for Non-partisan League movement. 

Rural organization. 

Market and price problems. 

Standardizing of weights and measures. 

Study of the price-controls established in war time. 

Distribution of farm products. 

Grading of produce. 

Country and terminal elevators. 

State-owned flour mills. 

Storage in transit. 

Laws to regulate warehousing. 

Marketing laws. 

The milk question. 

Consumers’ cooperation vs. producers’ cooperation. 

Legislation for farmers’ mutual insurance associations. 

Road improvement; market highways. 

Use of highways in interstate traffic. 

Motor-truck transportation. 

Rural motor express. 

New legislation for county and state fairs. 

Rural recreation. 

Make the details of rural life, as they concern the commonplace and 
unsuccessful among the inhabitants of country districts, as familiar as 
are the same details for city life. 

Studies of the use of leisure in rural districts and small towns. 

Investigations that might give, as against the romantic view, any 
real picture of the home life of rural residents. 

Housing. 

Health insurance. 

Sanitary oversight. 

Improvement of rural schools 

Measures for instruction in farming, particularly for new settlers. 

State support of the Smith-Lever work, 

Best type of state cooperation in Smith-Hughes and Smith-Lever work. 

Legislation to further the geet of industrial alcohol for fuel and 
power, 

Legislation on soil exhaustion. 

Fertilizer laws. 

Lime and marl laws. 

Study of cattle-feed legislation. 

Reforestation. 

Encouragement of woodlots, particularly as affected by taxation. 

Federal seed law. 

Dog laws. 

Unification of dairy legislation. 

Milk standards. 

Laws to develop breeding-stock on farms. 

Breeding-stock importation laws. 

Licensing of sires for public service. 

Laws to prevent outbreak of disease among live-stock. 

Legislation for protection of crops from diseases and pests. 

Immediate appropriation of sufficient funds to exterminate the Euro- 
pean corn-borer. 

Daylight saving in its effect on the farmer. 


424 


tes 
i Fas 
Pd f 


TE TE Ee ae 
: - . 7 ‘al 


No. V—1l11 


THE PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY 


I present my compliments to those who replied to my request. 
They will see that I have profited by their suggestions. 


In all the replies, there is not one suggestion that the farmers 
should exercise their power by organizing for class ascendency. 
Not one has suggested combination with commercial and capitalistic 
groups, industrial coalitions, labor organizations, or political bodies. 
This is in line with the attitude of the great agricultural organiza- 
tions, that now have so much latent and potential power. For ex- 
ample, the recently organized American Farm Bureau Federation, 
representing the powerful farm bureau organizations of the United’ 
States, adopts its first resolution as follows: ‘‘ We declare our in- 
dependence of affiliation with any commercial, labor or industrial 
organization, but maintain a cooperative attitude toward all move- 
ments promoting the welfare of American institutions.’’ These 
national organizations are not combinations. 


It is significant that the farmer takes first the ground of citizen- 
ship. He wants to be a better farmer in order that he may be a 
better citizen. He asks for no group perferment. He wants only 
fair treatment, not mass-action. The American farmer is neither 
capitalist or proletarian. 

The Association for Agricultural Legislation should exercise its 
influence to withhold the farmer from becoming a partisan, a sep- 
aratist, and a particularist. We must have no agrarian party. We 
must have no political combinations and manoeuvering for class 
aggrandizement, in which the farmer seeks to dominate. There 
must be a spirit of cooperation and accommodation, and no clash 
between producer and consumer. 


This Association must safeguard the individual responsibility 
and self-action of the man on the land. 


At this point we are confronted by two theories of the develop- 
ment of society. One theory assumes that progress is made by war 
between factions or sides, one part making drives on another part 
and seeking for victory. The other theory assumes that progress 
should be, on the whole, an orderly process and proceed in a more 
or less consistent evolution. In the former theory, advancement 
depends on strife; in the latter it depends on codperation and pub- 
lie service. It may be true that partisanship has effected much of 
our progression, but we are now ready to ask whether henceforth we 
should not transfer to the other basis. It is never true that there 
are only two parties to a class conflict: the actual sufferer in the 
end is likely to be the innocent third party, the general unclassified 
public. Partisanships have been well expressed in the past between 
races, the rich and the poor, church bodies, tribal chiefs, sover- 
eignties, political clans. It continues to be represented in political 
methods, and it is now evident in the antagonisms between mag- 
nates and the populace, anarchists and constructionists, capital and 


125 


No. V—12 


labor. Is this Association prepared to face these theories in the 
prosecution of its work? 

I have little fear of political class solidarity of farmers for the 
reason that what we call ‘‘farming’’ is not one thing. It is of 
many occupations. The raisers of roses and beef cattle have little 
in common in respect of occupational legislation. The cotton- 
erower and the wool-grower have few points of fraternal contact. 
Where is the class-unionism between market-gardeners and the 
- wheat-raisers of the Northwest, between orange-growers and to- 
bacco-planters, nurserymen and stock-breeders, dairymen and bee- 
keepers, sheep-rangers and cattle-rangers? Farming represents a 


series of occupations, agreeing in the contact with the earth but - 


differing in methods, products, markets, mental aptitudes. Some 
of the ranges are competitors, even commercial antagonists. The 
very diversity and separateness of these multitudes of interests 
make for safety in public polity. 

We are to expect strong drives from certain occupations or 
classes or regions of farmers, but it is difficult to project a faction 
or party of all farmers, the country over. We are to dispose of 
our fears that there may be a ‘‘farmers’ trust.’’ The occupational 
drives may even be necessary and unavoidable, as society now 
functions, to gain opportunity and justice, as it has been necessary 
in order to obtain justice for the workingman. We commend 
united action; members of cooperative and other associations are 
bound by the rules to which they subscribe; but the principle at 
stake in the general organizations of farmers is this,—to reserve 
to every person his freedom of action, the man to be his own master, 
attainment above the basic wage or income to be on merit, and the 
organization not to vote the membership as a body; and the public- 
service relationships are to be stimulated. All this will express 
itself directly or indirectly in many kinds of legislation. 

It is true, of course, that farmers of similar occupation may 
restrict or expand their production simultaneously over a large 
area as the movement of prices and supply of labor may dictate, 
but this is a very different action from an organized drive, strike 
or lockout of all men who till the soil. There will come to be a 
common sentiment among farmers on leading question in polities 
and trade: this sentiment should be carefully considered by leg- 
islators and publicists. 

Again, we must forget the traditional notion that the farmer is 
only a producer, and therefore is in a class or range by himself. 
No longer is the farmer a little feudal master, raising his own 
living and serving himself in his community to all his necessities. 
He now raises a line of produce, or is even confined to a speciality ; 
this produce he sells, and with the proceeds he buys food, groceries, 
clothing, apparatus, machinery, books; the day of homespun is gone, 
of the home-tanning of hides, the kitchen manufacture of cheese 
and largely even of butter. He is a heavy purchaser of standard 
supplies; the advertizing pages of the agricultural journals attest 
to this. His outlook is as broad as his practices. 


126 


No. V—13 


The type of educational training that has been provided for the 
rural people in the United States works directly against class 
factionism. It develops the pride of the individual in his and her 
own work. This education is founded on the teaching of natural 
science, which always reaches first for discoveries and facts, which 
tests every action against the verities of nature, which puts the man 
in his background to work out his problem. No other man can 
work out his problem for him. He is making a personal prepara- 
tion. His education is based on the idea that he must fit himself 
to be a more effective producer ; this is the development of personal 
merit and is therefore a form of public service. His actions form- 
erly were based largely on tradition; even this is better than to 
base them on the opinions of organizations because it at least al- 
lows for individual variation; now they must be based on ascer- 
tained facts. 

This education by means of agriculture on a vast scale (expressed 
primarily in the Land Grant Act) is the greatest educational move- 
ment yet known to us. By another generation it will have re-made 
the mind of the agricultural people. Just now it is the fashion 
amongst us to think in terms of organizations, movements, corpora- 
tions, drives, projects, groups, society, averages, percentages. It 
is coming to be the fashion, also, to regret the over-development 
of class consciousness: this consciousness is the child of its parent. 

Some of the people must think in terms of natural facts, experi- 
ence, personal contact with the earth, phenomena, the weather, 
seed-time and harvest that faileth not, the simple natural order of 
things as they are. In another fifty years, the rural people will 
have a directer and safer preparation for its work than any other 
non-professional range of our population, barring not one. 

It is to be specially noted that this training provides the sub- 

ject-matter for discussions before all kinds of farmer organizations. 
The technical scientific and commercial subjects give character to 
the meetings. Thereby are the programs along constructive lines, 
and the meetings do not propagate the habit of misfortune and 
disaffection and antagonism. The debates and discussions of this 
character exert a positive wholesome influence on the partakers 
and color their attitudes towards affairs. They breed the spirit 
of self-help. Unfortunately, the philosophy of grievance, discon- 
tent and complaint is abroad amongst us, and it propagates itself 
and grows big by habitual discussion. It breeds the spirit of de- 
pendence, and sows the seeds of strife. 
_ These numerous people, standing on the earth, owned by nobody, 
impossible to stampede, each man responsible for his program, cau- 
tious of novelty, moving separately rather than in crowds, temper- 
ate in hero-worship, will absorb the shock in the conflicts of the 
classes. They should be a stabilizing influence. 

It is just because the farmer stands between and behind the 
classes that he may render inestimable service to society by help- 
ing to umpire the disputes. If he joins with either or any faction, 


127 


No. V—14 


his power for good is lost. He then becomes merely another bel- 
ligerent. 


The one outstanding problem before the world today, as men 
and women assuming some measure of social sanity and looking to 
the future, is to see that justice is assured before the situations be- 
come so bad that we are called on to remedy injustice. Any sys- 
tem of ex post facto remedies, of locking the stable after the horse is 
stolen, is a pitiful exhibition of inefficiency and impotency. What 
is the purpose of government in this latter time if it is not to set 
the house in order, to anticipate conflicts of the classes, to establish 
a form of oversight that will maintain continuous investigations 
into the relations of opposed interests and to remove the injustices 
and dangers? Shall we nurture the seeds of selfishness and not ex- 
pect to reap the harvest? Must the contestants make war on s0- 
ciety that grievances may be heard? Is the old Anglo-Saxon 
remedy by petition dead amongst us? Are there no prophylactics 
in politics? Are we still children playing with public affairs? 
After twenty centuries, have we not yet learned the lesson of the 
foolish virgins? 


I trust that the American Association for Agricultural Legisla- 
tion will have a long and fruitful history. 


OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR AGRICUL- 
TURAL LEGISLATION 


President, Frank L. McVey, Lexington, Kentucky. 
Vice-President, Edwin G. Nourse, Ames, Iowa. 

Vice-President, Alexander. E. Cance, Amherst, Massachusetts. 
Secretary, Richard T. Ely, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 
Assistant Secretary, Alonzo B. Cox, Madison, Wisconsin. 
Treasurer, B. H. Hibbard, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 


EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 


O. C. Ault, George Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee. 

L. H. Bailey, Ithaca, New York. 

C, J. Brand, General Manager American Fruit Growers, Incorporated 
280 Union Arcade, Pittsburg, Penn. 

U. S, Handschin, University of. Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. 

Elbert S. Brigham, State Comm. of Agriculture, St. Albans, Vermont. 

Kenyon L. Butterfield, President, Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
Amherst. 

William R. Camp, Univ. of Cal., Berkeley, Cal. 

Milo D. Campbell, Coldwater, Michigan. 

Alexander E. Cance, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst. 

R. D. Cooper, Pres. N. Y. Dairymen’s League, World’s Tower Bldg., 110 
W. 40th St., New York City. 

John Lee Coulter, University of West Virginia, Morgantown. 

H. J. Davenport, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

E. Dana Durand, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. 

Hi. M. Eliot, Rural Economics Division, Extension Service, College Sta- 
tion, Texas. 


128 


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any < 


No. V—15 


ichard T. Ely, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

R. Fain, State College of Agriculture, Athens, Georgia. 

I. Falconer, College of Agriculture, Columbus, Ohio. 

. C. Gray, Economist in charge of Land Economics, Bureau of Farm 
aimee ae and Economics, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

B. F. Harris, President First Natl. Bank, Champaign, Ill. _ 

William O. Hedrick, Michigan Agricultural College, East Lansing. 

B. H. Hibbard, College of Agriculture, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Asher Hobson, Office of Farm Management and Economics, U. S. Dept. 

of Agriculture, Washington, D, C. : 

Thomas F. Hunt, Dean, College of Agriculture, Berkeley, California. 

E. F. Ladd, President, College of Agriculture, Fargo, North Dakota. 

Ghats A. Lory, President Colorado Agriculture College, Fort Collins, 


R 
J. 
J. 
L 


Ons oe 

Charles Lyman, Secretary, National Board of Farm Organization, 615 
Woodward Bldg., Washington, D. C. é 

Charles McCarthy, Legislative Reference Library, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Frank L. McVey, President, University of Kentucky, Lexington. 

Hector Macpherson, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis. 

Elwood Mead, College of Agriculture, Berkeley, California. 

Edwin G. Nourse, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. 

Dr. Clarence Poe, Editor “Progressive Farmer,” Raleigh, N. C. 

Herbert pee xederal Farm Loan Board, Treasury Building, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

J. Russell Smith, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 

W. J. Spillman, The Farm Journal, Washington Square, Philadelphia, Pa. 

C. L. Stewart, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark. 

H. C. Taylor, Chief of Bureau of Farm Management and Economics, 
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

George Thomas, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Henry A. Wallace, Editor, ‘““Wallaces’ Farmer,” Des Moines, Iowa. 

G. F. Warren, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 

Harris Weinstock, 19 Presidio Terrace, San Francisco, Cal. 

M. L. Wilson, University of Montana, Bozeman, Montana. 


COMMITTEES OF THE ASSOCIATION 


Food Production, Consumption, and Price: 
B. H. Hibbard, Wisconsin, Chairman. 
H. J. Davenport, New_York. L. H. Bailey, New York. 
Russell Smith, Pennsylvania. G. F. Warren, New York. 
Land Settlement: 


Richard T. Ely, Wisconsin, Chairman. 
Wector Macpherson, Oregon. Elwood Mead, California. 
W. J. Spillman, Washington, D. C. H. C. Taylor, Washington, D. C. 
Education and Improvement of Rural Life: 


C. J. Galpin, Washington, D. C. 
KE. C. Branson, North Carolina. K. L. Butterfield, Massachusetts. 
H. W. Foght, Washington, D. C, A. R. Mann, New York. 


Markets: 
Edwin G. Nourse, Iowa, Chairman. 
Harris Weinstock, California. C. J. Brand, Pennsylvania. 
William R. Camp, California. E. Dana Durand, Minnesota. 
O. G. Lloyd, Iowa. Alexander E. Cance, Massachusetts. 


129 


No. V—16 


Taxation: 


John D. Black, Minnesota, Chairman. 
C. C. Plehn, California. E. H. Thompson, Washington, D.C. 
John R. Commons, Wisconsin. 


Rural Credits: — 
C. L. Stewart, Arkansas, Chairman. 
B. F. Harris, Illinois. C. W. Thompson, Washington, D. C. 
Guy C. Smith, Connecticut. Leonard Robinson, Massachusetts. 
Roads: 
J. Clyde Marquis, Philadelphia, Chairman. 

L. W. Page, Washington, D. C. H. S. Shirley, Washington, D. C. 
R. H. Hess, Wisconsin. Pike Johnson, Washington, D. C. 

Public Range Grazing Land: 

Romanzo Adams, Chairman. 


Seed Laws: 
Lou D. Sweet, Washington, D. C.;- Chairman. 


. Agricultural Labor: 


D. D. Lescohier, Wisconsin, Chairman. 
B. F. Brown, Texas. Andrew Boss, Washington, D. C. 
Charles McCaffree, South Dakota. 


Collective Bargaining: 
James E. Boyle, New York, Chairman. 


Farmers’ Organizations: 
G. W. Forster, Kentucky, Chairman. 
M. L. Wilson Montana. Charles Lyman, Washington, D. C. 
Research and Study Programs: 


Alonzo B. Cox, Wisconsin, Chairman. 
Chairmen of other A, A. A. L. committees. 
Representatives of Farmers, and other Research Organizations. 


130 


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The American ‘Associaton for Agricultural 


Legislation 


The AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR AGRICULTURAL 
LEGISLATION is a body of public spirited men and women con- 
sisting of farmers, business men, educators, investigators, and — 
legislators in all parts of the country who are alive to the need of 
promoting our national interests by constructive agricultural leg- 
islation. : 

The work of the Association is Hivceied along the following 4 
lines: 

1. Scientific investigation of facts, careful studies of existing 
laws, consultation with those practically affected, followed by rec- 
ommendations so carefully worked out that they will command the 
respect and attention of legislative bodies. 

2. The organization of a central bureau to which indivdee 
- and organizations may come for assistance in the formulation and 
promotion of needed agricultural legislation and obtain the bene- 
fits of the broadest practical, historical, and theoretical knowledge 


of problems of production, and also of the larger social and eco- | 


nomic problems involving both rural and urban people. 
3. Promotion by publicity and education of such legislation as ; 
the results of the investigation indicate. of 
Committees are working in the following flelds: food production, oe 


consumption and price; land settlement; education and improve- ; 


ment of rural life; marketing ; taxation; rural credits; ee and 
transportation ; agricultural extension. | 


Membership. There are no restrictions on membership. All Vi 
- those interested in the work of the association are invited to send ‘#i 


a fee for the membership which they desire to the Secretary, i 


Richard T. Ely, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. — 


Minimum Membership Fee ............-.-00- ee 2S, 
Association Membership Fee ............ $5.00 to $25.00 
Contributing Membership Fee ...... .. .$25.00 to $100.00 
Sustaining Membership Fee .............. $100 or more — 
Founders Giving s45.44..,.. Pialnenats ae . .$500 or more 


All money received Le membership foe or otherwise is used 
in carrying on the work of the Association. A large membership 
is desired among business and professional people in cities and 


rural districts, as well as among men directly interested in agri-. ji! 


culture. 
Just fill out the inclosed Eopkcaton blank and send it with: your 
check to the Secretary. 


